


There Aren't Any Pens In Space

by cherrymuke



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Getting Together, Incest, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 04:47:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14036493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrymuke/pseuds/cherrymuke
Summary: This is basically just a multi-layered soulmate au aka every type of soulmate thing mashed into one - it's a mess.





	There Aren't Any Pens In Space

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie this ship makes me uncomfortable personally but I appreciate that some people cope-ship. I got a really weird intrusive thought about this about a month ago, wrote it and recently decided that those of you who do ship this really don't have any content at all for it so I guess I offer you this fic? It's not proof read so I'm sorry for any mistakes but I couldn't stomach re-reading it. 
> 
> You can ask to tag if there's anything you feel needs adding, I've tried my best but I wasn't sure what else to put.

The Holt siblings had always been close. 

Between sharing a room for the first eight years of Pidge’s life and their parents always working, they had spent a lot more time together than most brothers and sisters would. A symbiosis of sorts had formed, where each knew what the other was thinking and feeling. Their interests were similar and personalities complimentary. Of course, they bickered and argued, getting on each other’s nerves was something they had perfected. Not much time needed to pass before they were acting like best friends again, growing up they seemed almost attached at the hip. If you hadn’t met them before, it would surprise you to know they weren’t platonic soulmates. 

Everybody knew that platonic soulmates’ bonds were stronger than that of romantic soulmates and familial platonic bonds were immensely so. Even with their own partners, people were jealous how close those who had known their soulmates their whole lives were. It was because of this nature, nobody could understand how Pidge and Matt weren’t soulmates. Throughout the years their parents had desperately tested to check, double check, triple check that they weren’t platonic soulmates. Each time to no avail. Drawing on each other never led to the ink showing up on their own skin. 

Humanity had figured out how soulmates worked centuries ago. Very little was unknown about them aside from how they formed. People just accepted nowadays that it’s just the universe or fate itself. Scientists had spent decades attempting to recreate or destroy bonds, but nothing was ever discovered. Everything else was fully understood, it was extremely common knowledge. 

• Everyone was born with their partner’s first words to them tattooed on their bodies.  
• Soulmates could be platonic or romantic.  
• Platonic soulmates could communicate by writing on themselves and it would appear in the same place on their partner. Their bond was typically stronger and could occur within families as well as with non-relatives.  
• Romantic soulmates could feel what the other was feeling and had a timer on their wrists counting down to when they would meet. Whilst being weaker, this bond was viewed as more valuable in society and could only occur with non-relatives.

There wasn’t a person on earth who didn’t have a soulmate, some people even had multiple, but being alone was unheard of. 

Colleen and Sam were confused when their son had been born without any words or timers. The hospital staff had suggested that the words could have been too small to see. Premature babies often hadn’t fully developed their marks; their marks would become apparent as they grew. Matt reached six months with no sign of his words. It was because of this that the Holt family chosen to be relocate. They began work on a single-bedroom bungalow, way out in the middle of nowhere, to add an upstairs. Both parents were terrified of what would happen to their son if anyone found out. 

They hadn’t expected another child. Let alone, another child without any sign of a soulmate. Pidge was born three years after Matt and the only saving grace was that she, too, had been premature. It could be explained to medics in their daughter’s first few months why her words hadn’t developed yet. 

It started when Pidge was twelve and Matt was fifteen. 

Matt was sprawled across the floor of his room, leaning against his bed. He was surrounded by textbooks, notes and the laptop he shared with his sister. Pidge was sat at their desk colouring one of the space sketches their father had drawn. Despite not technically sharing the room anymore, Pidge’s old bed was still in the room and they had joint ownership of all the items. Most of their time was spent in there

“Matt, give me the black marker back! I know you’ve got it!” Pidge exclaimed. 

Usually Matt enjoyed the company of Pidge. He was used to it after everything they had been through together. It wasn’t easy hiding the fact that you don’t have a soulmate, physically and mentally. The support of someone else had always been essential to him, especially since neither of their parents fully understood and were always out at work. 

“I’m using it!” he retorted “I’m studying to get into the Garrison like Dad did.”

“Oh please, you’re going to get in no matter what. You’re smart. Plus, I know you only want to go because you think you have an alien soulmate.”

Matt glared at her. He knew she was right, they’d theorised why they were the way they were and alien soulmates had always been a fun idea. Reluctantly, he threw the pen toward her but being the poor shot he was, the marker hit her in the face. 

You would have thought said action would have caused an argument. Yet here they were, the Holts sat laughing to the point of crying. It always happened like this, as said before, they could never stay annoyed at each other for long. 

“I can’t believe you just did that,” Pidge spluttered out, still struggling to stop laughing “You didn’t even put the lid on!”

Grabbing a different marker and jumping up, Pidge turned to check in the mirror. As expected, she could see the streak of black on her cheek. Revenge would be necessary, even Matt knew it, already shielding his face with his arms. Uncapping the pen, Pidge pushed Matt down, trying to move his arms. 

“I am so getting you back, you know these markers are difficult to get off”

Whilst Matt was taller, he was no stronger and his arms were swiftly pulled above his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for impact. It never came. 

Slowly, he opened his eyes again. Pidge looked like she’d been put in a trance, staring at his face. For a moment he just sat there, still catching his breath after laughing so much. He was about to say something when Pidge began to reach out. Confused, he stayed still while Pidge began stroking his cheek. 

The Holts may have been close, but never this close. This was much more intimate than how they usually acted and Matt was perplexed. 

“Katie,” he began, using her real name as opposed to the nickname he had given her and she had adopted “What’s wrong?”  
“Y-your cheek,” she whispered, looking shell-shocked “It- The pen it’s…”

Matts eyes grew wide in understanding. They both knew what this meant. He shrugged Pidge off him and made his way to the mirror. There, on the same cheek, was an identical line of black. Perhaps once upon a time, he might have been happy to see the mark, this sign that they are soulmates after all. That he’s not going to be alone his life. That there’s nothing wrong with him. However, now faced with what he thought he’d always wanted, he had even more questions than before. 

Behind him he could hear Pidge whimpering, she was sat on his bed with tears streaming down her face. Matt walked across the room to sit with her, wrapping his arms around her. Pidge wormed her arms around her brother too and they stayed like that for what seemed like hours. 

“Should we tell Mum and Dad?” a small voice questioned, weak from crying. 

The older of the two sat up, thinking. Always one to act on instinct and be in control of a situation, Matt made the decision not to say anything to their parents. 

“It would only confuse them more at this point,” he stated, he’d managed to keep himself calmer than his younger sibling “We should figure this out on our own first, find out what’s going on”

Pidge nodded against his chest, having curled up to him again. Understandably, the two were quite emotional after having lived their lives thinking something was wrong with them. Ideally, they would have remained on Matt’s bed for the rest of the day, but both knew their parents would be home soon and they needed to make it look as though nothing had happened. 

Later that night, Matt decided to do some research on late-developing soul bonds. Most of the articles he found were either hoaxes or couples who just hadn’t realised the signs. After hours of searching and much despair, Matt had collected a handful of cases which seemed entirely legitimate. He wondered why scientists hadn’t considered them, but then remembered all the hoaxes and the fact that he had found the cases deep in old forum pages from over a decade ago. 

He spent another thirty minutes looking for some kind of unifying factor before reaching his conclusion. The bonds only developed later in life if one or more members had been in too much danger. Victims of abuse who were endangered by communication, people with illnesses that caused such pain that it would have damaged their partner too; it didn’t happen often, but if the universe deemed the situation too troubling then the soul bonds would only form once said situation was over. 

The only thing left to do was to figure out why the universe thought it too dangerous for him and his sister to have their bond before now. 

Deciding to call it a night, he closed down the laptop. It took around ten minutes of tossing and turning until he realised that he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He knew Pidge would be struggling too. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a pen on his bedside table. Considering it for less than ten seconds, he grabbed the pen and began to write out a message to Pidge on his forearm. 

I know you can’t sleep either, do you want to come through to my room?

It wasn’t unusual for Pidge to join him in his room when she couldn’t sleep. When they were younger, she would even sleep in his bed when scared. Pidge eased across the hall with her blanket. The door creaked open and had their parents’ bedroom been on the same floor, she might have worried. People think it’s weird to be so close to and reliant on your siblings, but it was just how the Holts had always done things. 

All worries she’d been having slipped away as she crawled into bed with her older brother, Matt’s own concerns dissolving into thin air once he had pulled his sister to his chest. They’d always been more comfortable together than separate anyway. 

It continued when Pidge was fifteen and Matt was eighteen. 

Over time, they’d gotten used to their bond. It was useful for having late night conversations without their parents hearing. They knew their parents couldn’t hear anything they did upstairs anyway, hence why they could go between each other’s rooms so easily, but the added element of secrecy made them feel like spies.

Their parents never did find out about the shift in their relationship, mostly because not much had changed in the way they interacted around others. At school they had stayed within their own social groups until Matt got into the Garrison and at home they stayed to themselves. They probably slept together in Matt’s room more often than they should but it was comforting for the both of them to be with each other, so they wrote it off as a side effect of the soul bond. 

What they hadn’t expected was for their bond to shift again.

Matt was in his room when it happened, Pidge also in her own room. It was beginning to get late. Being a growing teenaged boy, Matt had developed a bit of a jerking off habit in recent years. He didn’t often indulge himself but he was horny, he was alone and he had nothing else to do so he decided to go for it. Pulling his pyjama pants down and shoving his duvet away, he began. He was slow and teasing as he stroked himself, he’d always had a submissive personality anyway. 

Also being a teenager, Pidge had dabbled in getting herself off as well. She didn’t indulge herself a lot either, but when she did she went multiple times. This meant she wasn’t unfamiliar with that building pressure in her lower abdomen that meant an orgasm was on its way. It had awoken her with a start, she hadn’t been dreaming of anything so she didn’t understand it. All she knew was she was wet and throbbing. Without even thinking about it, she got to work. Stroking and rubbing before pushing a finger into herself. 

Unknown to her, Matt felt it too. The extra pressure of more pleasure was unexpected but welcomed. Neither of them had a chance to think about it, only focused on getting themselves to cum. With two fingers deep inside her and one circling her clit, the pleasure she could feel from Matt pushed her over the edge, an action which caused her to spasm in orgasm and Matt to spill onto his stomach. 

Once she felt Matt’s orgasm ripple over her, she was ready to go again. This was how she’d always done this, on and on. Overstimulation was never an issue for her. Her brother, however, was never one to push too far and was confused when I found himself still hard and being stimulated. He was too blissed out to care though and as Pidge continued her own activities, Matt kept cumming, untouched as just his sister’s pleasure drew out orgasm after orgasm out of him.  
Needless to say, the Holt siblings slept in late the next day. 

When Matt awoke, he remembered what had happened the previous night. Blushing furiously, he realised what had happened. The extra sensations, it must have been a soulmate bond, a romantic one. 

He’d given up trying to predict and figure out what was happening with his and his sister’s soulmate bonds. The universe must have finally decided to give him a romantic soulmate. Guilt washed over him, for more than one reason. First being that Pidge would be destroyed knowing he had another soulmate. The second being that he wasn’t sure if he wanted another soulmate. 

The morning was spent cleaning up after himself and studying, Pidge joining him later in the day after she’d had time to process things. She was feeling exactly the same way as Matt had been and had exactly the same thought process. 

“Hey, what’s up? You’re late coming in today” Matt motioned as she entered the room.

He was worried that maybe she’d heard something last night, they were close and definitely had talked about such things before. On more than one occasion Pidge had told him to keep it down. Once she’d even accidentally walked in when he was masturbating, he’d done the same to her. They weren’t embarrassed anymore, but last night had been different and more intimate for Matt and he kind of wanted it to stay private, he didn’t have many secrets.

“Oh nothing,” she replied, “I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night”

Alarm bells were ringing in Matt’s head but he decided not to say anything, if Pidge was bothered she’d bring it up herself. She was always like that, strong, to the point, unafraid. It was one of the many things Matt had always loved about her. 

They spent the day the way they usually would, occupying the same space, doing their own thing. Pidge was sat on her old bed that was still in the room, studying all the Garrison entry exam material she had. Matt doing all his own homework, prepping his application for the Kerberos mission that was set to happen in the next year or two. 

It was night-time before they spoke properly. 

“Katie, are you sure everything is okay?” Matt asked again from his own bed, still reading his book. 

He looked up when he didn’t get a response. Pidge was crying. 

“Come here,” he spoke softly to her, lifting the edge of his duvet so his younger sister could join him. She cuddled up to him and rested her head on his chest until she stopped crying. Pidge had always been tough but she knew she had a problem with bottling her emotions up until she broke down crying. Matt knew this but didn’t press her about it. He just offered her his chest and let her get on with it. Eventually, she ended up talking to him anyway. 

“I’m so sorry Matt,” she cried, clutching his t-shirt.

Matts brow furrowed, he couldn’t work out what she was on about.  
“I think I have another soulmate,” she blurted out, “and I know that people can have more than one soulmate and I know we’ll always be there for each other but I feel really bad because what if you don’t have one and what if my other soulmate gets jealous and what if -”

“Pidge,” Matt laughed softly “You shouldn’t be that worried about me. Come on, tell me why you think you’ve got another soulmate”

Pidge flushed as she began to recount what had happened last night, from waking up to finishing. She left out a lot of details because despite everything, it was still somewhat awkward to talk about. Matt’s smile dropped. This shouldn’t be possible. He knew it shouldn’t, but it was and it was happening. 

Their bond had shifted. 

Again.

Carefully, he pulls away from Pidge. He was so conflicted over everything. Should he even tell her? Shouldn’t this be wrong? The universe brings soulmates together, but what if it made a mistake?

Pidge could sense something was wrong with her brother and began pulling at his t-shirt. She was worried that he was mad or upset. Crying again, she tried to sit back into his lap but Matt stopped her. He spoke before she could, but all the words came out wrong and he didn’t know how to say it. In the end his brain must have decided bluntness was key because before he realised what he was doing the words 

“You came five times last night” were slipping out. 

Blinking to process, Pidge pulled back. About to ask how the hell he knew, Matt beat her to it again saying

“I did too, no thanks to you and this weird bond”

“How is this -”

“I think you should sleep in your room tonight,” Matt interrupted, and before Pidge could continue she was out in the hall. 

She plodded in to her own room to go to sleep, completely confused and a little scared. 

It fell apart when Pidge was sixteen and Matt was nineteen. 

Somehow, they had managed to move past the awkwardness, partly due to the fact that they agreed not to talk about it and to go on as if their soul bond had remained platonic. Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest thing to do but it let them get back to their old selves, with the unspoken rule not to masturbate. 

Occasionally, the fact that they could feel what the other did came in handy, like when Matt was sick and Pidge immediately knew to get him some medicine and water. At other times, it straight up sucked, like when Pidge fell down the stairs and sprained her ankle – Matt could have sworn his own ankle was swollen too.

Being back to normal was useful for the both of them as the past year was stressful for the both of them and they needed each other. Pidge was dealing with all the stages of the entrance exams to the Garrison and Matt was in the final stage of the Kerberos Mission application. With such immense pressure, having your other half was the best coping mechanism you could possibly have. Not to mention, sharing all the positive things with each other had been great too. The Holts both cried when Pidge got her acceptance letter and Pidge celebrated with Matt when he got onto the mission. 

It was ridiculously difficult to separate when the launch for Matts exploration came. To go from seeing your soulmate every day of your life to not being able to see them at all for eight months was near impossible. Communicating via writing on their arms made it at least somewhat bearable, for the first few months. From what Matt had written, Kerberos was stunning and they’d even managed to find ice samples within a couple of days of landing. 

Then the news came.

… it is thought that the crash is due to pilot error and all crew members are believed to be dead…

Pidge couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it. Her brother and soulmate, gone? Alongside her father? The thought was excruciating but soon enough she didn’t need to accept what the report had said. 

Her Mum had told her that her Dad was gone. She couldn’t feel him anymore. If Pidge could have made her Mum feel even the slightest bit better she would have done, however she was too preoccupied with the fact that she could still feel Matt. 

His confusion, his pain, his suffering. Everything he felt was echoed into Pidge’s own mind and body. 

In a somewhat futile attempt to find out what had actually happened, she snuck into the Garrison. If she’d had more time, she may have found out some useful information but she was found by one of the instructors. 

Thus began the craziest few months of Pidge’s life. 

From changing her name on her the forms from Katie to Pidge all the way up to discovering alien radio chatter about a super weapon. She hardly had time to breathe. However, she did have time to write to Matt every day. As of yet, she’d had no reply, but she was sure Matt knew she was coming for him. 

Her teammates Lance and Hunk weren’t awful, they were actually platonic soulmates like she and Matt had been at one point. You could tell by the way they acted around each other, but mostly by the way Lance flirted so much despite Hunk being by his side. They were actually with her when the Garrison went into lockdown and they, along with Keith (their former classmate), ended up rescuing Shiro – the other member of the team Matt and her father had gone to Kerberos with. 

Pidge was wrong when she thought the craziest months of her life had already begun because, as it turns out, they actually began with discovering a sentient blue lion robot space ship and wormholing thousands of lightyears away from earth. Proceeding to meet ten-thousand-year-old aliens, becoming paladins or their own lions and defenders of the universe was truly incredible. Despite the fact they were in the middle of an intergalactic war with a race called the Galra, Pidge managed to bond with the other team members. The team grew close and Pidge couldn’t remember ever feeling so close to anyone who wasn’t Matt. 

Speaking of, Pidge was still tracking down Matt. He hadn’t managed to write to her but she knew he was alright. It turned out he’d been a prisoner of the Galra before being taken by what appeared to be rebel fighters. She hadn’t really opened up to the team about her soul bond, even though they’d all opened up about theirs. Lance and Hunk talked about what a platonic bond was like to Shiro and Keith who talked about what a romantic bond was like. Pidge knew she had both and that they’d judge her if they knew. 

Over the months of battles and diplomacy, Pidge familiarised herself with alien tech and gathered intel about her brother until she was all but sure she could locate at least Matt’s general area. There was a long period of time until she had the time to actually go and hunt him down.

It ended when Pidge was seventeen and Matt was twenty.

Pidge had been in space for a year, Matt for two, and they were beyond ecstatic to see each other again. The time they’d had apart gave them time to realise that they needed to accept their soul bond in its entirety. When Pidge found him at his rebel outpost, Matt kissed her with everything he had. After coming up for air Matt started to talk breathily. 

“I’m so, so sorry, Katie,” he started, having to stop Pidge from going back in for another kiss “but there really aren’t any pens in space.”

Pidge just laughed as she embraced him again. 

She wasn’t even worried about what the rest of the team might think, she was just glad to have her soulmate, best friend and (now) lover back.


End file.
